


Do you believe in Santa?

by chuuthebabie



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/F, Fluff, happy holigays, i personally believed in santa at one point of my childhood, now i just think he's a creepy old dude, oh what else to tag, this ends happy i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28264917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chuuthebabie/pseuds/chuuthebabie
Summary: “Now tell me child, what is it that you wish for Christmas?”Hyejoo refuses to believe in Santa. Not even as a child. Just...not ever.Yet here she was, in Santa's lap, with only one wish in mind, Hyejoo asks, “I just want my best friend to fall in love with me.”
Relationships: Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Kudos: 91





	Do you believe in Santa?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theonesittinginthecorner](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theonesittinginthecorner/gifts).



> a literary gift for one of my favorite writers! 
> 
> -wishing you a Merry Christmas, your secret santa

“Now tell me child, what is it that you wish for Christmas?”

Hyejoo refuses to believe in Santa. Not even as a child. Just...not ever. Yet here she was...in Santa's lap.

She’s not even sure why they just let her prance right in the convention, considering this is a children only event. Hyejoo figures the Santa impostor was just dead tired of his job and was passing on children within a minute interaction to get it over with.

Hyejoo had never believed in Santa or any wishing-related matter. Things just doesn’t miraculously work that way. At least for her. For these children, well, it’s easier to acquire material wants.

Ignoring her inner complaints, she adjusts her position on the fake Santa’s lap and grabs the back of his seat for support. This guy’s legs feels like it’s made of cheap cushion. Hyejoo almost feels her weight sag with it.

“Hyejoo-yah!” Chaewon, Hyejoo’s best friend, aim-ready with her camera, calls for her at the front of the Santa fanmeet line consisting mainly of children. Chaewon’s megawatt smile is plastered on her face albeit she’s shaming Hyejoo at the moment, she can’t help but indulge in its blinding, endearing effect on her.

“Say Santa’s real!” _Flash._ There goes her dignity. The least Hyejoo could do was uphold her expression as if she’s holding malnourished Santa at a gunpoint.

Hyejoo can hear Chaewon’s giggling at the picture she took amidst the Christmas carols on full blast at the giant speakers above her head. The fake santa’s hohoho interrupts the spectacle and breaks Hyejoo’s reverie.

With Chaewon’s laughter playing along her heartstrings, Hyejoo sighs, “I just want my best friend to fall in love with me.”

“It’s done?! No fair! We didn’t see it!” Jinsoul jeered with food in her mouth, sending chewed bits flying away to Hyejoo’s direction.

“Manners, baby.” Jungeun appears on her side, shoving a tissue on Jinsol’s gabbling. “And yeah, you should have waited for us. Where’s the proof, huh?”

(A few hours ago, their friend group had been sharing anecdotes to pass time and Hyejoo’s story had been the highlight of the night amusing everyone by its randomness and relevance to the holiday.

“Any more volunteers? Don’t be shy, whatever’s been shared tonight, stays only for tonight.” Sooyoung, the host of the Christmas party, urges in a dubious tone after a few minutes had passed by and no one seems to bring up more embarrassing stories for everyone’s entertainment.

Hyejoo looks around in search for the sole reason of her attendance in the dying party and finds Chaewon slumped on the couch across from her. On top of her head was a deflated Santa hat that Yerim had probably made her wear.

“I don’t believe in Santa. Like at all.” Hyejoo deadpans in the passing of empty cups for refills and collection. On her peripheral vision, she senses the amused smirk on Chaewon’s face.

“I think we _all_ stopped believing in Santa decades ago.” Jungeun retorted matter-of-factly with Jinsoul gasping in offense beside her.

“But you said you believed in him on our third date!”

“I had to impress you, big baby.” Jungeun returned, smoothing Jinsol’s creasing eyebrows with a kiss.

“Yeah, but like, I never believed in a fat guy breaking in houses just to leave kids their gifts in the middle of the night. I never did, not even as child…or like for my whole life.”

“That’s one bland childhood you got there.” Hyunjin comments, the cat meowing on her lap seemingly agreeing with her. Hyejoo shrugs, meeting Chaewon’s gaze resulting to feeling another constriction in her chest. She downs the last bits of her drink, a bitter concoction she swapped Yeojin's with, and not even a second later, Heejin is pouring her another cup.

The session ends when Jiwoo shares the time she discovered the meaning behind the song I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and it’s all because one Christmas Eve, her parents had forgotten to close their door and right the moment pubescent Jiwoo had passed by, saw ‘the jolly, red, fat guy’ on top of her mother.

The group resorts to playing drunk truth or dare to cleanse their minds and Sooyoung almost jumps in joy when the bottle lands on Hyejoo. As someone who had been relentlessly avoiding truth, she’s left with no choice but to choose dare. Aware of this avoidance, Sooyoung had already prepared the _perfect_ dare for the younger girl.

The dare was to line up in a nearby live Santa attraction, sit on his lap, ask him for something, and document the whole thing with Sooyoung’s camera. Luckily, Chaewon is the only witness to the execution of the dare although the physical memory of it would last for eons in Sooyoung’s hall of shame, right beside the photo of a drunk Haseul face down on a heap of snow. Right to this day, Vivi calls it one of her best pieces of work. Chaewon too would join this tirade later.)

“You’re not making me line up with kindergartens again. I already did it, okay? Chaewon took the photo.” Hyejoo scoffed snatching a cup of tteokbokki from Jinsol earning a disgruntled hey! from the owner. Jungeun wordlessly prevents an impending quarrel between the two by handing Jinsol an untouched cup of another. Hyejoo gags as Jinsol rubs her cheek on Jungeun’s as a sign of gratitude.

Jungeun eyes her suspiciously. “Where’s Chaewon?”

Hyejoo grimaces at Jinsol shamelessly vacuuming her girlfriend’s food. “Not sure, I think the restroom.”

“Speaking of my child, when are you gonna ask her out?” Hyejoo chokes on nothing at the sudden question, as if the inevitable was a frostbite to her nerves. The scenery of Jinsol’s messy eating is then replaced by the observation of the people around them, an attempt of Hyejoo to ignore the inclination of her best friend’s closest seniors to her ‘pining’ problem.

Hyejoo rubs the heat at the back of her neck but it doesn’t seem to go away. She grapples for an answer and finds none. Jungeun sighs in a sympathetic tone, completely understanding Hyejoo’s predicament.

“Don’t pressure her, Jinsol. Do you even know how hard it is to confess your feelings to someone?”

Of course, Jinsol wouldn’t know. The ever so oblivious woman needed to ask ten people if the fast heartbeats she felt around Jungeun was not a chronic illness. 

“It’s been over a year, Hyejoo. Don’t you think it’s about time?”

 _It’s been years._ Hyejoo could wait for more, endure it longer if she may, even if it’s another five years, but today there’s something pulling at her capacity to keep it in any longer.

“Hey!” A gleeful Chaewon jumps on Hyejoo’s back and as if graced by her presence, the discussion regarding her repressed feelings had been tucked away again inside the safety of Hyejoo’s mind.

Hyejoo doesn’t miss the worried look Jungeun throws her. She returns the blonde a reassuring smile, lying once again that it’s not only Chaewon’s weight on her back right now, but also the probable downfall that might soon happen if she doesn’t get her shit together.

“Let me see the picture!” Jinsol reaches to grab the camera from Chaewon.

Jungeun pats Hyejoo on the back as they watch the love of their lives excitedly make fun of Hyejoo’s forced encounter with Santa.

After Jinsol had filled up her stomach to the brim dragging them to every food stall she laid her eyes and taste buds on, Jungeun finally gathered her wits to reject her girlfriend’s solicitations when she realizes they’ve only been going back and forth to that one gundam-themed stall for the past two hours.

Hyejoo is glad she wore the fur jacket Chaewon adores as the older girl had been continuously clinging to her throughout the walk. Not that it made a difference even if she wore other clothes.

Chaewon’s hand slides into Hyejoo easily like a pair of puzzle pieces she wishes they were. Afterall, she’s just a friend and a warming, hand-holder is what she’s really good at.

Moments like this, Hyejoo wishes they’re like photographs. Something she could keep for a lifetime, not just something that could vanish out of thin air.

Hyejoo eventually makes up her mind on their way back to Sooyoung’s. She’s unsure if it’s because they just passed by the playground her and Chaewon had first met but most probably it’s the warmth radiating from their intertwined hands.

“Wonnie.” Chaewon hums, focused on sending away edits of the Santa encounter to their group chat.

“Mind if we walk a little more to the park?” The couple ahead of them seemingly heard Hyejoo’s request as they stop walking as well.

“Okay.” Chaewon drawls out, closing a long line of apps on her phone.

“It’s freezing out here, little ones. Why don’t we go ins—ow!” Jinsol soothes her arm in Jungeun’s death grip.

Jungeun nods at them, specifically at Hyejoo. “No, go. Take your time. But don’t be out too long, the night’s getting colder now.”

Within an earshot, Hyejoo hears Jungeun scolding Jinsol, and then they’re bickering again like the lovesick fools they are, as they fade out in the distance.

Their walk is engulfed in a comfortable quietude, or so in Chaewon’s part. Beside her, Hyejoo is all over their little walking bubble, wracking nerves.

Hyejoo knows she had been throwing dull responses to Chaewon’s enticement to the overly decorated houses they passed by and even to the group of blind children with their guide dogs caroling from across the street.

She unintentionally flinches from Chaewon’s touch, mentally kicking herself when she recognizes a hint of hurt in Chaewon’s expression.

“Hyejoo are you okay? You’ve been kind of… off ever since we left Sooyoung’s house. If it’s the santa thing I can stop teasing you about it if you’re ever uncomf—"

“I want to talk to you about something.” Chaewon stops dead in her snowed tracks with a horrified look on her face. Hyejoo readies herself for a brutal letdown but what Chaewon really pertains with her expression turns out to be something else.

“Oh god if it’s the malatang with your name on it in the fridge I simply forgot how to read the second I saw it—”

“No I—wait you were the one who ate that?” Chaewon cracking a crooked grin only indicates a yes but Hyejoo couldn’t care more for anything other than the burst of repressed feelings that was about to come out of her at any given moment.

When Hyejoo senses Chaewon was about to blurt nonsense again, she beats her to it by grabbing her hand, that brings its owner a confused, yet anticipatory look on her face.

Hyejoo swallows the fear of laying her soul bare for Chaewon, clueless to what she’ll do with it. To trample or embrace, it’s on the brink of Hyejoo’s sanity to break away the seal she had protected for enduring all the years of pining for her best friend.

“I like you.” Hyejoo starts, fixating at their hands and how the chance of seeing them together depends on how the night ends: bitter, sweet, or a bit of both, she’s only hoping for the second.

“I have…always liked you.” The silent air brushes past them and it’s those minutes of frozen silence that Hyejoo deems as one of the most excruciating minutes of her life. Hyejoo bites her lip out of trembling. One thing she promised herself was to return any kind of response from Chaewon in the most positive and accepting manner.

“I’m not saying this to make you uncomfortable, it’s just that… I just want you to know how I feel about you. It’s been bugging me for days—no, for years even…I…god I…”

Hyejoo finally dares to peek up at Chaewon and the expression of the latter borders…

Was it a mix of confusion, disgust, anger? Hyejoo just wants Chaewon to say something back even if it caused Hyejoo a breakdown for later.

“I’m in love with you, Chaewon.”

 _This is it,_ Hyejoo figures. How stupid of her to end something beautiful, like clipping off a butterfly’s wings and leaving it to die in the cold.

A flutter of wind surges towards her, and the next thing she knows she’s getting pulled by her scarf and warm, plump lips are covering hers. _The butterfly lives_.

Of all the times Hyejoo had stared at Chaewon’s lips, had imagined what they felt like on hers, the actuality of it happening right now is incomparable to her countless daydreams. Hyejoo peers her eyes for a moment, innocently, to check if this is real, not some cruel prank her mind is playing on her. She feels Chaewon’s long lashes in the smallest movements against her cheeks and it is enough for Hyejoo to throw away her doubts and pull the girl closer, finally living their moment.

Chaewon leans away first and Hyejoo would’ve pulled her back if she didn’t need time to breathe. If seeing Chaewon was already breath-taking, Hyejoo discovers a different light witnessing her flutter her eyes open in such a close proximity.

Chaewon lets out a breath of a giggle. “Took you a while to say it back.”

Hyejoo blinks cluelessly. “Say what…?”

“I always tell you I love you, but you never say it back.” Chaewon surmises as if it’s up to Hyejoo to figure it out.

“I was close to thinking you actually hate me but then again, that doesn’t really explain why you always look at me like I’m the best thing that ever happened in your whole life.”

 _Because you are_. Hyejoo wants to tell her but instead, she pulls in her best friend for a more heated kiss, something they need to do if they’re going to be staying out in the cold for a while.

“Do you believe in Santa now?” Chaewon asks, poking Hyejoo’s free arm on her side.

Hyejoo chuckles, gently tracing Chaewon’s cheeks with her fingertips. “Maybe.”

Chaewon widens her eyes at Hyejoo’s supposed ungratefulness. “Maybe? You asked him for a girlfriend and here I am. You even got a kiss as a bonus.”

Hyejoo cringes in Chaewon's hold and mention of an embarassment. “You're never going to shut up with that, huh? I can’t believe I asked him _that_.”

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Chaewon jests, tickling the crook of Hyejoo’s neck with her laugh. “You know you can’t make Santa do your greasy work for you…”

“Greasy?!”

“You do it yourself.” Their gazes meet and Hyejoo really, really wants to kiss Chaewon again.

“Well…did I do it right?”

Hyejoo doesn’t need a verbal reply when Chaewon leans closer for another kiss, snuggling deeper into their own winter cocoon.

And Hyejoo does believe in Santa now, if not a wish granter, a surprisingly effective wingman perhaps. 

**Author's Note:**

> any of y'all believe in Santa? 
> 
> in my mind im typing away a poetic, heartwarming end note but it just wont come out! i'll just wish everyone again a merry christmas and may this year, shit as it is, end on good terms. 
> 
> and to the receiver of this gift, i feel like i should apologize for this trainwreck of a fic. i'm not confident you'll like it... but i hope you do.
> 
> comments and kudos matter a lot to me so feel free to leave me those :3  
> twt; @wawabxwa


End file.
